Composers & Collaborators

“Writing with different composers is always a different psychological experience. Each one has his own approach to creation. To know their idiosyncracies and to be able to get the best out of each one is fascinating. Each composer brings out a different aspect in your work. Duke, with his very sophisticated music for that time, the late ’30s and ’40s, demanded a certain kind of lyric. Vernon’s particular personality also required that you talk to him in a certain way, that your criticism and objections be registered in a diplomatic way that would neither reject nor demolish him.

“Lots of times the composer will give you a whole tune, and if he’s sensitive to what will fit his melody for example, Harold Arlen is very sensitive to what will fit his melody and you give him a title or a first line, and if he doesn’t agree, he”ll tell you. But it’s the way he tells you, and how you respond . . . and what your coefficient of acceptability is toward criticism. That is what your relationships with all these men depend on.

“It’s diplomacy, it’s psychology, it’s a lot of psychiatry it’s knowing the person you’re dealing with, and the sensitivities of the two of you. Some writers can’t collaborate they are at each other’s throats all the time, hostile to one another because of that constant rejection that has to go on in your day-to-day work. Writing and creating is nothing more than a series of those rejections, or, rather, criticisms. And the man who knows that, the good writer, always feels that criticism is valid.”

Yip consciously enjoyed the challenge of working with new composers. He even labeled himself a “chameleon”. He wanted to figure out the personal foibles and strengths of the personalities of his many collaborators.

Below is a composer-by-composer breakdown. The lifetime total includes unpublished compositions. In addition, there are many loose lyric sheets among Yip’s papers with no reference to a composer-collaborator, so we may never know exactly how many composers worked with him. There is some evidence that Yip wrote lyrics to George Gershwin’s music when they were both teenagers, long before Yip embarked on his career as a lyricist.

The total for Jay Gorney includes his input as arranger for all of the songs in the 1961 Broadway musical The Happiest Girl in the World , adapted from Jacques Offenbach tunes.

COMPOSER

FIRST YEAR OF COLLABORATION

LIFETIME TOTAL

1.Harold Arlen

1932

155

2. Jay Gorney

1929

111

3. Burton Lane

1940

51

4. Vernon Duke

1930

47

5. Jacques Offenbach

1961

36

6. Sammy Fain

1929

35

7. Jule Styne

1967

30

8. Lewis Gensler

1932

20

9. Larry Orenstein & Jeff Alexander

1969

19

10. Jerome Kern

1943

14

11. Earl Robinson

1944

14

12. Philip Springer

1979

14

13. John W. (Johnny) Green

1930

10

14. Arthur Schwartz

1930

10

15. Milt Okun

1964

8

16. Senia Pokrass

1933

6

17. Dana Suesse

1933

5

18. Henry Souvaine

1929

5

19. Milton Ager

1931

5

20. Oscar Levant

1931

4

21. Joseph Meyer

1932

4

22. Ann Sternberg

1969

4

23. Ralph Rainger

1930

2

24. Lou Alter

1931

2

25. Richard Myers

1932

2

26. Roger Edens

1933

2

27. Karl Hajos

1935

2

28. Earl Brent

1942

2

29. Richard Rodgers

1930

1

30. Mario Bragiotti

1931

1

31. Werner Heyman

1931

1

32. Igor Borganoff

1932

1

33. Emmerich Kalman

1932

1

34. Morgan Lewis

1934

1

35. Jean DeLettre

1934

1

36. Maria Grever

1934

1

37. Franz Waxman

1935

1

38. Will Irwin

1937

1

39. Herbert Stothart

1938

1

40. Carl Sigman

1941

1

41. Margery Cummings

1942

1

42. Nick Acquaviva

1959

1

43. James Van Heusen

1978

1

Quote of the Month

2 lyrics about Sundays

1944Sunday in Cicero Falls,Sunday in Cicero Falls,Shoes are brushed and shirts are starched,Hearts are pure and throats are parched,Sabbath has fallen on cobbles and wallsThank merciful HeavenJust one day in sevenIs Sunday in Cicero Falls,Sunday in Cicero Falls.

1950There’s a fine Sunday feeling‘Round that old village square,With those fine Sunday facesSmiling at you everywhere . . .

From the bells in the belfryComes a song everywhere,If it says “Love thy neighbor,”And thy neighbor’s young and fair,Thank that fine Sunday feeling in the air.